


The Moment the Sky Shattered: Belida

by MaureenLycaon



Series: The Moment the Sky Shattered [1]
Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Belida, Original Characters - Freeform, Original Player Characters, Other, World of Warcraft - Freeform, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:22:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27518338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaureenLycaon/pseuds/MaureenLycaon
Summary: Belida may not have seen the sky shattering, but she does feel it.
Series: The Moment the Sky Shattered [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2011267
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	The Moment the Sky Shattered: Belida

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first in a series of short stories depicting how some of my characters respond to the events of the Death Rising pre-expansion storyline.
> 
> Copyright disclaimer: the Warcraft universe and games belong to Blizzard Entertainment. Only the interpretation and these particular words belong to me, Maureen Lycaon. No copyright challenge intended.

Belida handed the little mechanical scorpid to the young calf. The ghost iron gave it a beautiful sheen, like silver but paler.

The calf's eyes widened. He turned the toy this way and that, admiring it.

"If you touch the right side of the thorax with one finger, it will move," Belida told him.

He tried it, poking at the scorpid. It clicked its claws -- and struck with its little stinger. The stinger was blunt; the strike was no more than a light tap on the calf's finger. He startled, waggling his ears, and then laughed with delight.

"Thank you, Madam Belida!" he said.

Belida felt warmth swell in her heart. She had done this so many times, and each time it thrilled her anew to see the joy in a child's face.

She could do this the rest of her life. Making a modest living forging and selling the useful mechanical contrivances that folk needed, and making toys to delight calves.

Then the bottom dropped out of her stomach.

For a moment, she thought an earthquake was happening. That's how it felt, as if the very ground under her feet had lurched. She straightened up, but nothing was swaying or jerking.

Still holding onto the scorpid toy, the calf looked up at her, eyes wide. "Madam Belida?" he asked.

A gray-muzzled Seeker looked around wildly, then up at the sky, her ears spread wide. The big Sunwalker bull at her side looked at her, bewildered. "What's wrong?" he asked her.

All over the central rise, startled shu'halo were looking anxiously in every direction. Other shu'halo simply stared at them or looked around with baffled expressions. A wave of questions and exclamations swelled across the rise.

"What was that?"

"Are you ill?"

"What happened?"

"Do you see anything?"

Belida neither saw nor heard anything amiss. Yet, she knew with terrible certainty, deep in her bones, that something horrible had just happened.


End file.
